Category: Alan Bushey

A judge sentenced the leader of a religious sect to 2 years in prison Wednesday for hiding an elderly follower’s rotting body on a toilet for weeks.

Prosecutors said Bushey kept the body hidden so he could collect Middlesworth’s Social Security checks and annuities. Bushey’s attorney, Thomas Steinman, argued that Bushey thought God would bring Middlesworth back to life.

A woman charged with helping to hide a corpse in her Necedah home is also a victim of the man who is charged with directing that failed resurrection, lawyers for both the prosecution and defense said Monday.

“We do regard (Tammy Lewis), at least in part, as a victim of this cult activity,” said County District Attorney Scott Southworth.

Cult leader Alan Bushey and Tammy Lewis, 35, were charged with two counts of causing mental harm to a child after the body of Alvina Magdelina Middlesworth was found decomposing for two months in a town of Necedah residence.

Lewis told investigators Bushey, who also goes by Bishop John Peter, told her to leave Middlesworth’s body in the bathroom and pray for God to bring her back to life. Lewis’ son told detectives Bushey told him demons were destroying Middlesworth’s appearance to make it look like she wouldn’t return to life, the complaint said.

Tammy Lewis, 35, and 57-year-old Alan Bushey have been charged with two felony counts of being a party to causing mental harm to a child. Lewis was also charged with obstructing an officer, a misdemeanor. Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth said authorities believed it was a “cult-type situation where fraud was enacted by the leader of this cult in order to obtain money.”